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I've finished: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

This Holms and Watson duo really captured me. The fact that the setting isn't London, but a province near the seawall that protects a biotech empire from seasonal attack by giant leviathans makes it much more appealing.

The biotech isn't mimicking current or future technology, it mainly enhances natural abilities. The augmentations have repercussions and unwanted side effects.

The story is toled in first person by Dinios Kol, an engraver, augmented to have perfect recall. He is very competent but suffers from imposter syndrome as he tries to hide his dyslexia from his superiors.

Kol is assigned to assist the eccentric genius investigator Ana Dolabra, an over sensitive woman that has to blindfold herself in order to manage the amount of information assaulting her brain. Kol assits her by going out into the world and recalling what he's seen and heard.

As the plot thickens, we learn more about the empire and its ills.

As mysteries go, our attention is pointed towards many clues, the satisfaction is more in watching competent people do a good job in the face of adversity.

The Tainted Cup is a real page-turner and I found it hard to put down.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/a97ae9ff-1aa2-4ea9-a547-f290ac647b61

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